Day of Contradiction

" I believe when death closes our eyes, we shall awaken to a light,

 of which our sunlight is just a shadow"

Life is so phenomenally unpredictable and contradictory. The sun shines, the wind blows and the leaves ruffle. A winters day couldn't be better and yet the same day is like the black of the darkest night in the deepest woods for someone.

A close friend and colleague lost her brother today to cancer. I can't begin to imagine the pain and grief of the parents on losing their 29 year old son. Any words of condolence is not sufficient to fill in the void that his passing would be causing them. I can only pray that he crosses over peacefully and the family has the strength to survive the loss.

At the same time another friend and colleague gave birth to a baby girl. Whose emotion is stronger? Such  a contradictory ironical day! 

Someone is drowned in sorrow and someone is ecstatically overjoyed on the new arrival. Such is the illusion of life! One sun but varied sunshine!

Being God

" Aim at heaven and you will get the earth thrown in, aim at earth and you will get nothing"

Religion and spirituality is starting to become my key writings. Here is the latest update of the "toing" moment in my brain. I am sure this thought is not unique to me and must be existing in one or most of the books that I haven't yet read. But I'd still like to give little credit to myself for coming up with this idea all by myself without external help.

So here's the thing:

According to scriptures, there are 4 yugas or eras of the human race. In India we worship 33 crore Gods and Godesses not to mention the demigods which are on the rise. So what if in Sat yuga and dwapar yuga there were about 33crore inhabitants and all of them had some attributes which made them unique, powerful and almost divine. So could there be a possibility that over a period of time their uniqueness may have been the cause of others bowing to them and as time went by and kal yuga came in everyone started bowing to them?So as we entered kal yuga , we started worshipping all the 33 crore inhabitants as Gods.

Today, a Michael Jackson, Mahatma Gandhi and Rajnikant are almost worshipped as Gods. Who knows years later maybe they would be turned into God and MJ will be worshipped instead of Natraj!

Saibaba, Guru Nanak, Jesus Chirst none of them ever said that they are God and yet they enjoy the status of being God. All their teachings were towards the belief that God is One and He is the Almighty, yet today they are worshipped as God.

For want of a belief and to fall on to something bigger and better than ourselves we look upon others to give us the strength. Today we have swamijis, babajis, gurujis, matajis and what not preaching the one thing that have been taught by so many before them. A Ram, or a Krishna have also taught the same things. Yet as days pass by we look at them as God and seek solace from them but do not heed to their teachings but still look for answers from  the different messengers who so very patiently parrot the same teachings as did so many others before them since maybe the Sat Yuga. What we forget and we never strive for, is that we can become the Vivekanand or the Paul if not Ramakrishna or Jesus. Why go so far, we could even become the Mother Teresa or Meera by only our devotion to our work or supreme love towards the god we worship. 

We can become an image of God if not God. After all we were created in His image. And it maybe true as, if all 33 crore were divine and after all we descended from them so somewhere we do carry the divinity along with us. It just remains to be brought in the forefront. Some smart ones have already done so and hence are worshipped why not we?

" Heaven lies under our feet as well as above our heads"

Astrology

Nature and all Natures laws lay hid at night;

God said, let Newton be, and all was light.

                                                        -          Alexander Pope

India is a country full of mysticism. People here love to believe in the celestial beings and how they can or will affect the course of actions. One such ancient study is the Astrology, which is defined as (according to wikipedia) the study of the celestial bodies interpreted as affecting personality, human affairs, and natural events.

I have always been very fascinated with this branch of study and given any opportunity would like to hear the course of events about to occur in my life due to the changes occurring in outer space. A horoscope plays a vital role in the astrological study. A horoscope is a chart or diagram which represents the  Sun, Moon, planets, and the constellation of stars, their angles, proximity to one other and other sensitivities at the time of an occurrance of an event particularly at birth.This chart allows the astrologist to study and predict the course of events to follow in the individuals life span. This chart is one of the first and important possessions in the life of an individual, particularly in India. Most key decisions in the life of an individual is based on the horoscope and its predictions. 

Today I read that only 6000 stars can be seen with the naked eye from earth and only 2000 at any point of time. With a binocular or a standard telescope the number varies from about 30000-50000 and with an extremely heavy duty telescope about ten billion stars in multiple galaxies. But all the stars and planets are some light years away and a star burns for billions of years and dies off very quickly and only a few stars explode.This is a fact which I had probably known while I was in 6^th grade or maybe earlier but the enormity of it never sunk in before today. 

Coming back to my dilemma, the people I know who predict the future by reading the constellation and planets and their positions, what position are they referring to? The one that we see today, is something that happened 2 light years away to say the least. So they are predicting my future or Julius Caesar’s? Also what is the probability that a star seen on the day of my birth was actually live and shining  on that day? For all we know,it would have long exploded. So my future is being predicted by a star which actually doesn’t even exist!  Not to mention that the experts who predict are not the best astronomists and all of them I know have never touched a telescope leave aside use one. So the information they have about the planetary positions is something that is already documented.

And here we are only talking about our solar system which is a minuscule part of the galaxy and the universe, where every second there is a birth of a new star and maybe every month a creation of another solar system. What about those movements? Just today there is a news flash about a discovery of another planet. So how does that affect our horoscope now? Or since the discovery is only today, maybe the effect it has in shaping the future will also be applicable to people born after today.

With due respect to the people who dedicate their lives to this study, one last question, why do we hear only few of the names repeated again and again in the horoscope? Except of the 9 known planets and a dozen stars is there nothing that is affecting our future? I have heard a million times if not more, that the stars are bad and so this is happening to you; and so this is affecting you. Are the stars not equally bad for everybody? What if you were told that there is a star which exploded some 4.5 light years away (which BTW is the closest known star to Earth) so we have about 450 years to continuously sit and watch the end of ourselves. Would that nullify all your prediction as this one star would then bring all the animate and inanimate objects of earth under the same category which spells DOOM.

Freedom

"Unity does not mean uniformity but an infinite variety"

The day passes by hearing the television set voicing out the name of only one man- the man of the moment: Anna Hazare. This man has been solely responsible for starting a revolution in the country. 

Since this is not a political debate website and I am an apolitical person so I will not comment on the current state of affairs. Having said this, there are somethings which I would like to bring up in front, not to debate over but just to clear my mind out of it. 

The Republic of India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic. Therefore this turmoil is only fair when the bill has been pending for 40 odd years or so.

Some supporters were screaming their lungs out that they have freedom of speech in this country (something they would have memorized in the Civics textbook of 7^th grade). As the largest democratic country in the world we are entitled to freedom. What dude, is this freedom?

Freedom is the will to be responsible for oneself. It is a right and judicious exercise to seek work, wealth and happiness in the manner most appropriate to oneself, without transgressing the law of hindering the freedom of others. Enlightened citizens who understand the meaning of freedom and utilize their freedom with much circumspection and with benefit to themselves and to others can alone perfect a society which can regulate its own affairs. Hence it is often that self government is better than any good government.

If freedom for every living human being is to be ensured and if the prevention of war and elimination of distrust is to be an accomplished fact, then the individuals that form that world must have a spiritual vision and a moral integrity otherwise un-subdued selfishness and greed are bound to get the better of them and wreck the world of understanding.

So while the country rejoices the passing of certain practices,are we ready for such a revolution within ourselves. Our we ready to lead a life of integrity and honesty devoid of corruption?  Since 1947 we had freedom and the right to live and the right to choose. We are the ones responsible for this day and why are we revolting then? Why did we not parade in a black band or t-shirt the day the first bribe was initiated. Why did we not do a hunger strike the first time we found someone evading taxes? We were not ready for it then. And are we ready for it now! 

First remove the corruption within you learn to enjoy your freedom and learn your rights as the citizen of this nation. Then this day would go down in history. Otherwise it is yet another day in the common man's life.

The right or prerogative of a man is: the right to live and the right to self development. Our whole life revolves around this freedom and one and all are duty bound to preserve and protect the right to live and the right to self development. Each individual or national group of individuals  by making the most of himself or itself can at the same time contribute best to the world’s good and foresee a world brotherhood.

Being successful or successful being?

“Arise, awake and sleep not till the goal is reached”

Every day we hear success stories. Stories of people emerging winners in various fields of life. We see it around us too, and we judge people and their success by the possession that they proudly display out. New cars, new gadgets, state-of –art houses and the envy of others less fortunate. In our society today, people are respected for their achievements rather than for what they are.  People struggle hard to achieve their results. They go through the grind that is required and are also ready to sacrifice many other things to reach their desired destination. But after seeing success through, what is really the meaning of being successful? Is it not the false glory of an ignorant child?

We all live in the world as if of the world. We measure the success ratios based on what we see of a person in terms of the world. People themselves measure their success based on what they have managed to win from the world. But is that enough for being successful? Is that what can be called true life?

A Tukaram or a Meera Bai and so many others died in poverty. So are they not successful? I feel the whole idea of achievements and glory  is an interpretation of the ignorant who have not understood that success is internal and personal. It is a play of imagination to halt or stunt one’s progress, avoiding further steps.  What is the seeming success of which one boasts when he has done or achieved the fulfillment of a deed! Is it anything in comparison with the final realization of self? 

This thought may sound like grapes being sour, particularly coming from a person who has in the unreal sense not done much to receive the “respect” deserved to be categorized as successful. But in all humility, I say that bigger the fall, greater the success.

True life is so compelling in an inspiring fashion. True life is the inner life. It is the life lived with self realization. It is Man’s supreme goal, centre and ideal. Inside us there is a God. There is eternal divinity which should find expression in our deeds, dreams and thought. It is the life of harmony, peace, compassion and bliss. It is the life lived with love and joy.  This definitely does not mean that one should live a life of dreams or meditation alone. It is leading a life of divine action. These actions will be towards constructing certain things that matter in life and are much bigger that the mundane existence of life itself. The aim of life does not lie here itself, the goal is not to be hunted in the means itself.
Our existence on earth is not a true existence but only a process of becoming something else. This world is a training field for eternal life. The ideal is different from the process. Manifesting God in all our lives will make the world a better abode of peace and harmony and hence let us strive for it.  You will attain what you want only if you seek for it where it is. If you want happiness, seek for it in the self and not in sensual objects. If you want power, reach Omnipotence in self realization, you will become one with the Supreme Power that governs the universe, not through political positions or through machine guns. If you want prosperity acquire through righteousness not in bungalows and cars. Deluded ones seek happiness, prosperity power glory in the things of the earth.
Awaken the God within and that would be the true meaning of being successful. Do or die, deify or deny should me the motto for an intense life. Realizing self one goes beyond heaven and hell and attains peace. 

That would be a success story worth mentioning. 

Eternal Religion

“A man must be born in a church but he must not die in a Church"
                                                                                     – Swami Vivekananda

God is one and indivisible.  All the theological battles arise when we insist that externals of religion be kept forever. All great religions are divided into 3 parts:  a ritual, mythology, philosophy. Rituals and mythology form the external of religion while the philosophy forms the basis of any religion. There can never be uniformity in rituals or mythologies as they are the abstract ideas of philosophy constructed for the grasp of ordinary minds. They should be given up when the soul through its purity and discipline is able to comprehend the essence of the religion. All philosophies teach us 2 things: the fundamental truth of existence and the truth of life. 

There can never be my religion or your religion or even a national religion. There is only one eternal religion and all the religions of the world are manifestations of it to suit different temperaments. If one religion is true then all religions are equally true as all religions are efficacious in all respects as suited to the diverse conditions of the minds.

Men quarrel about religions because they emphasize on the words, personalities and explanations but never go to the fountainhead. Different religions are different forces of God and all are necessary to maintain equilibrium of the world and enhance the richness of creation. They are not antagonistic but complementary. All the ancient great religions of the world are justified in their existence and the attitude towards any religion should be not of tolerance but of acceptance. Tolerance implies viewing another faith as inferior than one’s own. All religions are revelation of God in different aspects to satisfy the demands of human minds. God is but one and indivisible. The different Gods of religious mythology are different aspects of the absolute as comprehended by the finite human minds. The task of religion is to educate the world and make man go the way of tolerance and peace. Each religion must contribute its portion to that divine event towards which the whole of creation moves. All religions are simply an attempt to unveil ourselves and to explain our Self.

Not for the sake of the child is the child dear,

the child is dear for the sake of the self.

Not for the sake of the wife is the wife dear

not for the sake of the husband is the husband dear,

the wife is dear for the sake of the Self – so also the husband.

This is the Truth.

(Excerpts taken from "Voice of Babaji")

Another Blasted Blast!

Suffering is the price for being alive.

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.

Another blast!! Oh ye people have a heart! What do you seek? What have you not that the unfortunate people did? Where do you come from, where do you go and where will you go? Do you sleep at night? What do you see when you close your eyes? Such a heart wrenching act and you can still live? Are you a creation of Mother Earth or some other planet seeking to destroy us! How can you come out of the same womb as the rest of us and yet want to destroy us!

Bombay! The city that never sleeps. The city that always feeds. The city that has embraced all as one. The city of dreams, the city of life, the city of love and romance, the city.. the pulse of the nation. The pride of India. Born in Bombay, seen Bombay in all its glory and very disheartening to see it disintegrating. I don’t understand politics. I don’t understand terrorism. I only understand love. And these acts don’t look like people who have ever known love.

 I am a believer of the Universal Soul. I believe that we all came from one source and have to go back to the same source. When I see such acts the whole belief comes crashing down. The ones who instigate such plans or the ones who act on those plans cannot be a part of me. They cannot be a part of anybody. Who are they then?

Why do they exist and what purpose do they serve? My heart goes to all the people who had to die such an  unfortunate death. I hope they find peace elsewhere. My heart also goes to those who initiate such acts of violence. I hope you find peace somewhere.

HEY, I AM BEING FOLLOWED BY MONKEYS!

" The evolution of the brain not only overshot the needs of prehistoric man, it is the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ which it does not know how to use"

Recently I have been obsessed with tracing out the human evolution to as far back as possible and to understand whether further evolution is possible and what would we evolve into. Though I have found a lot of data pertaining to the first part, the future of evolution is still work in progress. But one thing is certain. Evolution appears to work in bursts of activity.Some species survived for a very long time and suddenly seemingly overnight  a new variant species seems to have evolved from it. And humans or homo sapiens appear to be like new borns when compared to the first life form about 50 million years ago! And yet the transition from a 500 cc brain to a 1450 cc brain did not take that much of a time.

Here are some list of findings so far:

Man has been a tribal animal since he first walked erect, more than four million years ago. Since he was bipedal, he could not out-climb or outrun his predators. Only through tribal cooperation could he hold his predators at bay. For the next two million years the human was a tribal hunter. He still is.

All of the human's social drives developed long before he developed intellectually. They are, therefore, instinctive. Such instincts as mother-love, compassion, cooperation, curiosity, inventiveness and competitiveness are ancient and embedded in the human. They were all necessary for the survival of the human and pre-human.

The intellect, the magnitude of which separates the human from all other animals, is not unique to the human, it is quite well developed in a number of the other higher animals. The intellect developed as a control over instincts to provide adaptable behavior.
The human is designed by nature or evolution to modify any behavior that would normally be instinctive to one that would provide optimum benefit (survivability). This process is called self-control or self-discipline, and is the major difference between the human and the lower order animals, those that apply only instinct to their behavioral decisions.

Self-discipline, therefore, is the measuring stick of the human. The more disciplined behavior (behavior determined by intellect) displayed by the individual, the more human he becomes. The less disciplined behavior (behavior in response to instinct) displayed by an individual, the more he becomes like the lower order animals that are lacking in intellect and are driven by their instincts.

These findings have led me to conclude that humans became social animals as a survival mechanism. Given a choice there maybe some of us who may still have the old genes which make us solitary people. Humans are also polygynous. Much later on when civilization must have construed, due to the high intellect which also developed by then, people may have realized some of the consequences of a polygynous nature and hence would have trained humans to be monogamous.

In the book Symbolic Species, marriage is defined as " an ancient homonid response to the conundrum of group living as a monogamous species, that is, a socially constrained contract given meaning and force by symbolic concepts"

I am sure a lot many things including the origin of religion is a result of this intellect. There is a lot of guess work that we may have to do to understand if certain behavioural patterns just evolved or they were conscious decisions taken by the tribal heads. To quote my all time favorite, "For the greater good", by all means these decisions (for lack of better word) may have been neccessary at that point of time.

Since we are so strongly driven by our intellect and add to that our instinctive ability what may we evolve into? Is it going to be mutation or transformation? Since we are already adept at adapting to any surroundings and we have also proved that we are predators,we can proudly say that we have taken over not only the world but are also in the process of conquering the universe.Do we really need any further evolution?

Lets wait and watch!

Happy Mothers' Day!

" When I stopped seeing my mother with the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped give birth to myself "

When I was in school, I hated writing essays and I had an imagination the size of a peanut. Though I loved reading, I could never get the words to form while writing something and would struggle for days together and then my mom would jump in at the last minute to save my skin.

Once, when I was in 6th grade, we were told to write a simple essay about my mom. Though thoughts flooded with how good a cook she was and how she would take the form of a tigress protecting her cubs when it came to us and how bad she could get when we were bad but I simply could not put those thoughts on paper in an appropriate manner and struggled all Sunday afternoon. My mom simply refused to help me on this one. She thought it was high time I learnt to write or else I deserved to get negative rating at school. My Mashi (mom's sister) -the darling, stepped up and saw what I had written and actually thought it was a good way to start an essay and just helped me fine tuning a bit, thus tickling my creative bit of the brain. From there on, I started scoring the highest in all my essay writings and also went to the interschool level competition standing 3rd. But that would always be the first essay I ever wrote - My Mom.



Can't imagine her without him beside



Mothers sure have a peculiar way of teaching their kids. They pamper them, love them and also are extremely ferocious sometimes but yet the heart beats like only the mothers heart can. So Mothers day seems to be very minuscule in size to that what symbolizes motherhood. According to Hindu scripts, we exist because of karma(our past doings) and also karma is the reason we are born where we are because of a debt clearance. But what occurred to me today is if that holds true then we are forever bound to life, as how does one clear a debt to a woman who has borne you for 9 months?

To talk about something as mundane as the sacrifices laid down to raise her kids is I think, demeaning motherhood. Mothers never sacrifice. They do what they do because they love too much. They do everything in their power to see that their child is happy and smiling. And unfortunate are those children who never understand that the mothers primary role is only the happiness of their child and everything else is far beyond their understanding. It took me 30 years to realise that my mother learnt nothing else in life other than to love her kids and to give them all the happiness that she could gather from her universe. And yet she is forever happy and is always dancing with love. I also realised the reason of her dance is due only to her children.

Some books say that God created man first and then the woman out of the mans rib. I so disagree with that; as ,if god created the woman to be born out of the man then why would the creator give the right of creation to a woman? The scripture further states that God cursed the woman so that she would bear the labour. Ask any woman today if they think that they have been cursed. And if the curse can be so beautiful that I am born out of my mother then God please curse us woman folk some more!

The Mother symbolizes the spirit of love. Love exists in between the mother and a child in the most purest and divine form. I seem to be reiterating love in most blogs but it seems to be the only blissful state of existence. Right from creating the child to nurturing the child, watching it grow up and then standing by to see the child flourish, is it not love? Just imagine the quantum of love a mother can contain in the heart in proportion to the love that we have showered on them, I think we are forever indebted.

To all the mothers of the universe and Mother Earth Herself I bow before thee! We seek love everywhere and it is at disposal at your feet. Whoever conceived you must have done so with so much of love!

God can only bless you!

Spiritual warfare

" Without you nothing could exist "

Recently I started reading the Bhagawad Gita, the holy book of the Hindus. I had nothing better to read and out of curiosity I just wanted to understand what the scriptures say and where we went wrong in our understanding. Apparently according to my ex-colleague and mentor, one starts out with reading fiction then moves to court room dramas and espionage thrillers, thereafter philosophy and then grows as a spiritual reader. That according to him is the life cycle of a book lover. So when I told him I started reading the Gita, he was thrilled but at the same time said that the turmoil starts now- The Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre (Chap 1:verse 1) ; and yes, he is right.

These are the first two words of verse 1 and basically means "on the holy plain of Kurukshetra"

But it is used as a metaphor for something much more deep. This book was not written as an evidence of some battle that happened in some land between the most prominent and influential monarchs of the time. As I continued reading, it became evident that the historical battle was created as a background and the characters therein have been used for the purpose of illustrating the spiritual and psychological battle going on between the attributes of the pure discriminative intellect in attunement with the soul and the blind sense infatuated mind under the delusive influence of the ego. Thus it is an allegory for the battle that happens in our own body every moment that we live.The first 2 words talk about the battle on the holy plain which is a symbology to our own body.

Man's soul consciousness-the realization of oneness with the eternal blissful spirit-has desceded through various gradations in the mortal body. The senses and blind mind, and the power of pure discrimination, both rule our bodily kingdom; there is a constant conflict between the forces of materialistic senses and the pure discriminative power that tries to return man's consciousness to its native state of soul realization.

The material desire is the supreme ruler for a person who does not meditate. It is desires power to lure man towards sense pleasures rather than soul happiness. Meditation awakens the discriminative qualities and hence one can experience the joy of inner world spirit. Therefore the battle occurs within us to overcome discrimination tendencies by presenting the memories of the past habits. Gita does not teach us that it is a sin to use senses with discrimination and self control; but a spiritual aspirants supreme duty is to seek God and self realization.

The full measure of God's consciousness is manifested in those who have full realization of Universal Consciousness. A perfected being is one who has attained complete liberation in Spirit; he becomes supremely free and can then return to earth as an avatar (divine incarnation) - as did Krishna and Christ among many others.

An avatar has dual purposes: one to teach the general populace about good and evil. But their main purpose is to create other God realized souls, helping as many as possible to attain liberation. This is the very personal and private bond formed between a Guru and a disciple. An union of a loyal spiritual endeavour on the part of the disciple and divine blessing bestowed by the Guru.

Arjuna signifies such a disciple and the whole Gita is the conversation between Krishna and the disciple Arjuna- the spiritual aspirant seeking knowledge from his Guru about how to overcome this battle and fulfill the supreme duty for which he was chosen. It is the spiritual dialogue that takes place between the omnipresent spirit and the soul of the ideal devotee.

I am reminded of Harry Potter, when he goes to buy a wand and he is told the wand chooses the wizard and I feel like Harry Potter where the Gita has chosen me. I had no reason to pick up this particular book at this stage of life and yet I did.

Travelogue

Introducing the driver,

                                                      

the cleaner

 

 

 

 

 

..........and the madame.

 It all started with major plans of driving the North India but again the pocket seemed to be tearing hence South India it was. But again, there was a bigger tear in the pocket so we decided to club our nephews' birthday along with the trip so covering Madanepalle, Bangalore, Mysore, Bandipur, Coorg.

The day started at 9:00 p.m. on 14th January traveling by bus to Madanepalle. A small town in AP and the hometown of a dear friend M whose parents were gracious enough to have us in. So we had two days of heavenly food and visited Horsley hills, the only hill station around that area and extremely hyped of a place considering there is nothing much to do except pack beer in a jeep and sit on top of a hill and admire the country side below. On 16th started for Bangalore to spend time with the nephew. He of course was thrilled to have us in, though the niece was not so sure about us. After a nice evening and some family time, started off to Mysore.

Reached Mysore after a brief halt at two banyan trees which are supposed to be spread across a huge area and are centuries old. One of them situated behind a famous ashram. Added a touch of the spiritual side too and met the Godfather himself. Reached Mysore by afternoon just to realize that the palace may not be open to public yet and also as usual R had his stomach growling for a loo break after the MacD's burgers we had gorged on the way and a halt to Hotel Roopa was due.

M & I couldn't resist the biryani even if it meant stuffing us up till our throats. After being fed and watered time to visit the Grand Palace. Clicked a lot of pictures but unfortunately lost all of them for reasons less known. Seen here is a distorted one I managed to click of the palace by night.

Headed to Bandipur after that just in time to catch the last bus to the wildlife. Caught a glimpse of the wild elephant and some deers and the likes. The drive awesome and the vehicle awful. We had decided to stay the night in the wild but there seemed to be nothing much to do hence we decided to come back to Mysore and stay the night there. On the way back went to get the view of the palace and gardens by night. Thereafter, Hotel Roopa it is and beer and more food time. Got stuffed yet again and dropped off to bed to wake up next morning to kick start for Coorg.

Day 5: Woke up got ready, tea and threatened R for no food till Coorg and took off. R saw a CCD and refused to drive further till he was fuelled. So breakfast time at CCD and straight to Kushalnagar en route Coorg. Kushalnagar happens to have the second largest Buddhist monastry in the country called Namdroling. It has a huge form of Buddha in gold alongside 2 other important Buddhas.

The entire settlement was huge and very serene. We spent almost over an hour there before lunch at a local restaurant with thukpa and chowmein. Some window shopping and then to Coorg.  

At Coorg we kept driving for forest flower which was deep inside a coffee plantation and a beautiful inn with wooden cottages and a tree top swing below which a stream flows. Awesome! Service not good. They did not know the word complimentary and even water was to be bought. But then again one does not stay in such places for the service; they stay for the peace and quiet that nature has to offer.

Once we settled into the place we went to the local town for sightseeing a negligible visit to Abbey waterfalls which was a bit of a joke for waterfalls, and food and some beer. Then it was chilling time at the inn and some photography and HTHT.

Day6: Dubare Elephant camp it is at 6:00 am. We got wrong information and reached there early morning but the elephants apparently don't wake up before 9:00a.m! So some timepass in the river and again food and some more timepass at the camp itself before the kings arrival. They arrive like the royals and the pompous walk can give Her Highness a run for the money. We were allowed to pet them when they get into the water for a bath and also are allowed to bathe them. My first touch of any animal and it felt weird. After the shower it was food time for them too and soon after it was time for us to take their leave. We come back to the other side by boat and then back to forest flower for a quick shower and pack up before heading for Rishi Agastya's ashram and the root of the kaveri river. The tree under which Agastya rishi sat still exists and the vibrations still feel strong. The drive itself was killing and by the time we got back to the town it was 4:00pm and we were starving. We hogged on Chicken and rotis and then started for Bangalore.

Reached Bangalore late in the night, I slept throughout the journey and don't remember much of the drive anyway, and crashed straightaway once we reached home. Next morning M left and we were by ourselves. Thus ended one of the most memorable holidays and now for Adu's birthday in a couple of days. Till then its chillax at home with the kids and enjoying the Bangalore hospitality.

Love Lost

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave" - M.K. Gandhi

We humans, though considered a highly evolved species, are the least evolved when it comes to love. Either we have not understood what it is to love and be in love or we have not experienced love at all. Either we have people crying and dying over lost love, or we have people killing others for love.These are the extreme cases but in most normal beings, love is just a measurement about how much (s)he have done for the other, which is to say how far the other one has gone to keep the partner/lover happy. Me included. This holds true for all the other relations as well. But the past year and few amazing people have changed my perspective. Love is about graciousness and love is only about giving. We give to everyone, but with the expectation of receiving. Love is that which is beyond all boundaries. Love gives compassion and love brings joy in surrendering.
Today, while having lunch, I saw 3 birds perched on the roof of a building nearby and on close observation I noticed that one of them was struggling with its feet as it was hurt. Immediately 2 other birds flew next to the first and started licking the bruise and did so for a very long time. Soon after, 1 flew away and came back after a few moments with something to eat. It gave it to the first bird again licked his bruise for somemore time. Now the bird started hopping and seemed to be capable of handling itself. Satisfied, they flew off into the distance. This scene was so divine that it left me speechless. Sitting there I realised how minuscule we are in our feelings towards the others and how much I learnt from 3 little birds  which were non-existent for me a while ago, and how larger than life they had suddenly become and how small and thoughtless I was. Was there anything that bird expected in return for the compassion shown? That tiny creature had a tiny heart and yet made of gold.

At the same time a colleague of mine and I were discussing love and expectations built around it. Somehow while talking to him I felt that we have succeeded not only in adulterating nature but also all the purest forms of emotions available by nature. We call ourselves a social animal and take pride in the way we are civilized and socialized. But are we really? We have only tried our best to keep our footing in the so called "society" by behaving how others want us to and being what we are actually not. In doing so, we are becoming so focussed towards pleasing the others eye that we are actually becoming downtrodden in the way we feel or think towards the same person or anybody else.We feel and care too much about the societial norms and some pre-defined rules but the basics are long gone and forgotten.
When we were animals we knew to survive and while it was survival of the fittest we also were ferociously guarding and protecting our herd, but now being a social animal where is our herd and what are we protecting? Except for all the glossiness in our lives we have nothing to hang on to or call our own. And all because we have lost the love that was once ours.

Title borrowed from Ravi Warrier

Happy New Year!

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."


Another year has come by and with it has come new hope, new dreams and new goals. The new year is always a time when we start planning on the new activities for the year, and while that is good as it gives a sense of direction, how many of us actually sincerely live by the resolutions or decisions we take? I remember, last year I had decided on a whole list of this to accomplish, but a lot of it didn’t. As the new year approached I was kind of disheartened that I couldn’t complete the tasks I had thought of through the year. But in retrospect, maybe I didn’t get to do which I decided upon, but I did actually have an eventful year, and 2010 would be one of those years which has taken me to a different dimension.

I completed my 2nd Post Graduation. I bought my mini notebook (my first expensive piece of gadget), stayed away from R for the longest time ever, met SP and NR. Two people who added tremendous value in my life. Got disconnected and reconnected. The reconnection was of course an invention by itself and therefore have started an altogether new journey. Got into a different dimension in spiritualism. So these are a few firsts that happened last year.

This year, I want to travel, I want to read  a lot of books I missed upon ealier and I want to evolve. So the task for this year is pretty clear though its going to be one big challenge.